Candidates William Bell, left, and Patrick Cooper, shown at their first of three debates, finish the Birmingham mayor's race Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010. (Tamika Moore/Birmingham News)
When Birmingham voters pick a new mayor on Tuesday,
they also will select between different paths and visions for Alabama’s
largest city over the next two years.

William Bell and Patrick
Cooper have laid out significantly different blueprints for the city in
their six­week runoff campaign to serve out the remainder of ex-Mayor
Larry Langford’s term. And how the city

moves forward will depend on which of the candidates winds up on the third floor of City Hall.

Tuesday’s special election, which will pick Birmingham’s fourth mayor
since October, is ex­pected to draw a higher per­centage of voters than
in the gen­eral election, when 26 percent (34,931 people) participated.

But the negative tone in the lat­ter days of the campaign could have an impact, said Larry Powell, a UAB political pollster.

“Generally I expect more people to vote than did in the first

go-around, but the nature of this could change
that,” Powell said. “This one’s got­ten so dirty. That really neg­ative
campaigning seems to drive down turnout.”

Divergent plans

City finances

Bell said
the city should stop spending operational money on capital projects. He
recommends refinanc­ing current bond debt and taking that savings to
pay for some capital projects and eliminate the current operating
deficit.

Cooper agreed that the city must stop funding capi­tal
projects with operating money. But he took a strong aim at current city
con­tracts, saying millions of dollars in the budget will be saved by
“scrubbing” the budget of political cronyism — auditing and canceling
contracts that require politi­cal allies to do little to draw money.

Both men said indepen­dent advisers are needed to evaluate city
policies and ensure the current fiscal cri­sis — in which the Langford
administration failed to in­clude basic services such as telephones in
the budget — is not repeated.

Creating jobs

Bell said
he is already in talks with companies that could bring more jobs to the
city, but declined to detail the ventures, citing confi­dentiality
agreements. As mayor, he said, he would work with state agencies along
with continuing city incentives to recruit busi­nesses. Bell said he
would also establish job-training programs.

Cooper takes a regional approach to recruitment,

saying he would call on lo­cal and state leaders to work together on
projects that benefit the entire Birming­ham metro area. Cooper said
millions of dollars are available in federal funding for job training
and the cre­ation of a Job Corps-type program that would be run through
the city until the economy improves. Partici­pants, he said, then would
be ready to take on private­sector jobs, he said.

Both also agree that the region’s transit system, MAX, must be fixed and is a key to getting people to jobs.

Crime

Bell said he would
not micromanage the police and fire departments, but instead would make
sure those departments have funding for the resources they need. He
intends to keep A.C. Roper as police chief.

Cooper, like Bell,
agrees with retaining Roper as po­lice chief but, citing crime as one
of the city’s worst prob­lems, said as mayor he would play an active
role in the police department.

Schools

Bell touts a plan
for schools that he developed earlier on the City Council, an effort
that resulted in new school construction. As mayor, he said, he would
spearhead a second phase of the “Bell Plan,” which supports the
development of academic programs. Bell said he also wants to lobby
state leaders to give the mayor appointing authority over the
superintendent of schools.

Cooper said new schools in the city
are good — but useless given poor gradua­tion rates and dismal
aca­demic statistics. Cooper said he’d take improved aca­demic
performance over programs to build school buildings. Cooper also
pro­poses that the city fund a voluntary pre-kindergarten program,
contending it would aid student academic achievement early.

Birmingham’s image

Bell
vows to establish an office of integrity to serve as an ombudsman for
the city and report problems. As mayor, he said, he would work to clear
the cloud over the city by creating an open and transparent City Hall.
Bell said he would set up a dialogue with other govern­ments,

including the sub­urbs, but said Birmingham must be responsible for its progress.

Cooper said the “culture of corruption” must end in local politics. He
said the old politicians continued that culture for their per­sonal
enrichment. Cooper said the mayor must take a regional approach when it
comes to economic devel­opment and cities should stop “cannibalizing”
each other when competing for projects. Cooper said he would become a
leader to bring the region together on multiple issues, ranging from
transit to job recruit­ing.

Action, cooperation

The two most recent peo­ple who have led Birming­ham — Roderick Royal,
the current interim mayor who will become council presi­dent when the
new mayor takes office, and Carole Smi­therman, the council mem­ber who
was interim mayor for a month after Langford’s conviction on federal
cor­ruption charges — say the new mayor must confront significant
problems and questions right away.

The first challenge,
Smi­therman said, is tackling a more than $20 million hole in the city
budget, working with the council to create a balanced spending plan and
determining what to do about the many popular, big-ticket projects
launched during Langford’s term.

“The challenge for the new
mayor is whether he will continue with imple­menting the projects the
public has already been told will be part of their quality of life,”
Smitherman said. She cited the $55 million Fair Park renovation, the
half-billion dollar domed stadium and other expen­sive efforts.

Another challenge will be working with the council.

As council president, Royal said he will extend open arms to whichever
candidate wins. He said his council colleagues also are willing to work
with the city’s new leader.

“A lot of that goodwill can be
incorporated into pro­gressive action,” he said, “or it could be
squandered on personal agenda.”

Smitherman said rela­tions between the mayor and council will depend on both sides being willing to

communicate and establish trust: “One-on-one conver­sations are going to be very important from the new mayor.”

“Mr. Cooper was engaged in many of the council races (last fall), so if
he wins he’s got to assure people that that’s over and done with and he
can be trusted,” she said. “Then Commissioner Bell is coming from the
ranks of the council — his challenge is to make certain he is inclusive
of the col­leagues he’s worked with just two years ago.”

New vs. experience

Observers also see the

race as a classic matchup in the political arena — the po­litical newcomer vs. the long-time politician.

While Cooper’s status as a fresh face helps him in a county where six
longtime politicians — including the ex-mayor — have been con­victed of
or pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the past three years, he
will have to guard against the perception of being an ama­teur if he
wins Tuesday, said Natalie Davis, a political sci­ence professor at
Birming­ham- Southern College.

Conversely, Bell’s 30 years of experience and his deep roots in Birmingham give him a familiarity that voters

can see as comforting, Davis said. But those longtime connections to
City Hall, and Birmingham’s decline during Bell’s political career, can
also be a hindrance, said D’Linell Finley, a for­mer political science
profes­sor at Auburn University at Montgomery.

“They are so decidedly different that there’s a clear choice here and
the people are going to make that choice,” said Powell, with UAB. “They
actually agree on most of the issues. The difference here is in style,
but the styles are vastly dif­ferent.”